Israel would not DARE to deliberately attack a USA ship. That would undermine its primary supporter. Loss of USA alliance would be fatal for Israel and absolutely every Israeli, civilian and military, knew that, and still knows it.

Here is the skinny on that story:

Egypt had purchased a ship from USA of identical appearance of the Liberty (one of hundreds).

Israel knew about the purchase.

USA failed to coordinate with Israel on the matter and did not inform Israel of its ship and location.

USA flags are cheap. The thinking of the pilots was that it was the Egyptian ship with a USA flag placed as a communication hub to coordinate the Arab forces.

Liberty attempted to hail the aircraft, but in those days, not everybody in Israel spoke English.

As soon as the identity of the Liberty was determined, the attack was halted immediately. If Israel had wanted to sink the ship, it could have maintained the attack.

Anybody who says different is at liar. The USA held a formal board of inquiry whose results I summarized above.

"Accidents and mistakes do occur in wartime. Journalist Ze'ev Schiff gave an example of a friendly fire incident where Israeli aircraft had bombed an Israeli armored column south of the West Bank town of Jenin the day before the attack on the Liberty."

"It has been estimated that there may have been as many as 8,000 friendly fire incidents in the Vietnam War"

"19 November 1967, a U.S. Marine Corps. F4 Phantom aircraft dropped a 500 lb (230 kg) bomb on the command post of the 2nd Battalion (Airborne) 503d Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade while they were in heavy contact with a numerically superior NVA force. At least 45 paratroopers were killed and another 45 wounded."

DFM, One thing you learn in war is all nations lie about their side of the war, and their side is always fully justified, while the other side, or sides, are the bad guys. Remember this is the war... more